Systems and Methods for Receiving, Aggregating, and Editing Survey Answers from Multiple Sources

ABSTRACT

A software-implemented method may receive, organize, and aggregate survey answers from multiple survey sources into a single database, regardless of the initial method of collection. Survey answers may require certain common information fields. The survey answers may include media which is transferred from the survey source to the database, and the original copy at the survey source deleted upon a completed transfer. A survey participant may access his own answer, associate it with a user account using a passcode, and make edits to the answer; the source of a survey may also edit an answer by resubmitting the answer. Edited answers may be displayed along with the original version, for instance in a “threaded” display format.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/991,270, filed on May 9, 2014 in the US Patent and Trademark Office.All disclosures of said provisional application are incorporated hereinby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to systems and methods for managing surveyanswers from multiple sources. In particular, although not exclusively,methods are described to receive answers to surveys conducted bymultiple survey sources, in a format such that the survey answers may beaggregated notwithstanding their separate sources; additionally, surveyparticipants may identify themselves after the fact, to edit theirearlier answers and associate those answers with a user account.

2. Description of the Related Art

It is common practice to survey customers of a business and determinethe quality of the business' goods and services, along with otheropinions of the customers about the business. Survey results may beuseful either to the reviewed businesses, who may use the information tofind areas for improvement, or to the public, who may use the aggregatedinformation to compare businesses and make informed decisions aboutwhich to frequent. Surveys may also be used to collect opinions onnon-business subjects, such as the popularity of a pending legislativebill, which could influence the actions or words of political figuresregarding that bill.

The introduction of the Internet has allowed for two common, andfrequently related, improvements on surveys. First, survey answers maybe collected online; that is, an online form may allow entry of answerswhich will be submitted to a database. The convenience of this systemincreases the likelihood that a surveyed customer will complete andsubmit the survey. Second, a database of all survey answers may beaccessed online, with the data conveniently organized and arranged bypreference of the accessing party. This is especially useful for publicaccess purposes, as the public has come to expect the Internet to be theprimary source for any information they could desire.

It may be desirable to combine the efforts of multiple third partysurvey sources, who may be able to collect survey answers from differentgroups of people in different circumstances depending on theirrespective resources. In some cases, it may also be permissible anddesirable to use answers from a pre-existing survey. However, this cancomplicate aggregation of the survey answers, as different surveysources may have their own surveys with distinct questions. Computerautomation normally complicates this issue rather than resolves it, asan automated system is generally not flexible enough to merge differingcontent. A system that can aggregate these surveys into a uniform set ofdata is therefore desirable.

Survey answers are frequently anonymous and, for convenience, might notrequire an identification process of any sort. For instance, a surveymight be submitted online but without using a login process, or theinitial survey answer might have been provided in paper or other analogform and converted to a digital form later. Additionally, when a surveyanswer is transferred from a third party survey source, identifyingdetails such as a login may prove inconvenient, impractical, or evenimpossible to transfer with the answer. However, it may be desirable toedit a survey answer after submission, and it is important that only theparticipant who provided a given survey answer be able to edit thatanswer. A method for limiting editing control to that participant, evenwithout an existing and associated login, is therefore desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

While not limited thereto, an embodiment of the present invention isdirected to a method of receiving and organizing survey answers, themethod including, from a first source, receiving an first survey answer;conducting one or more tests on the first survey answer to confirm it isan approved survey answer; if confirmed as an approved survey answer,storing at least part of the first survey answer to a first database;from a second source, receiving a second survey answer; conducting oneor more tests on the second survey answer to confirm it is an approvedsurvey answer; and if confirmed as an approved survey answer, storing atleast part of the second survey answer to a second database, wherein, ifa subject matter of the first survey answer and a subject matter of thesecond survey answer match, the first database and the second databaseare the same database.

According to an aspect of the invention, the one or more tests for eachsurvey answer may include: a test to confirm the source of the surveyanswer is an authorized source, based on a unique source ID; a test toconfirm the subject matter of the survey answer is a known subjectmatter, based on a unique subject matter ID; and a test to confirm thesurvey answer comprises a series of information fields matching a set ofrequired information fields for the subject matter of the survey answer.

According to an aspect of the invention, the first survey answer mayinclude an associated passcode, and the method may further include:after storing the first survey answer, receiving a request to edit thefirst survey answer; receiving an additional passcode; and if theadditional passcode matches the associated passcode of the first surveyanswer, granting permission to edit the first survey answer, receivingan edited survey answer, and editing the first survey answer in thefirst database to reflect at least part of the edited survey answer.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method may further include,after storing the first survey answer, generating a passcode;associating the passcode with the first survey answer; after associatingthe passcode, receiving a request to edit the first survey answer;receiving an additional passcode; and if the additional passcode matchesthe associated passcode of the first survey answer, granting permissionto edit the first survey answer, receiving an edited survey answer, andediting the first survey answer in the first database to reflect atleast part of the edited survey answer.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method may further include,if the additional passcode matches the associated passcode of the firstsurvey answer, associating the first survey answer with a user account.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method may further includereceiving an additional survey answer from the first source; comparingone or more identifying features of the additional survey answer to oneor more identifying features of the first survey answer; and if the oneor more identifying features of the additional survey answer match theone or more identifying features of the first survey answer, editing thefirst survey answer in the first database to reflect at least part ofthe additional survey answer.

According to an aspect of the invention, the one or more identifyingfeatures of the first survey answer may include a first answer ID, andthe one or more identifying features of the additional survey answer mayinclude an additional answer ID.

According to an aspect of the invention, the one or more identifyingfeatures of the first survey answer may include a name, a physicaladdress, a phone number, or an email address, and the one or moreidentifying features of the additional survey answer comprise a name, aphysical address, a phone number, or an email address.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method may further includereceiving an additional survey answer from the first source; checkingthe additional survey answer for a label indicating that the additionalsurvey answer is a duplicate survey answer; and if the additional surveyanswer is a duplicate survey answer: comparing one or more identifyingfeatures of the additional survey answer to one or more identifyingfeatures of the first survey answer, and if the one or more identifyingfeatures of the additional survey answer match the one or moreidentifying features of the first survey answer, editing the firstsurvey answer in the first database to reflect at least part of theadditional survey answer.

According to an aspect of the invention, the editing of the content ofthe first survey answer may include inserting the at least part of theedited survey answer and a timestamp into the first survey answer.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method may further include,if the first survey answer comprises a media location address:retrieving media from the media location represented by the medialocation address, storing the media to a memory, and amending the medialocation address to represent the new location of the media in thememory.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method may further include,if the first survey answer comprises a media location address, afterstoring the media to the memory, instructing the first source to deletethe media from the media location represented by the media locationaddress.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method may further include,if the first survey answer comprises a media identifier: requesting amedia having the media identifier from the first source, receiving themedia having the media identifier from the first source, storing themedia to a memory, and amending the media identifier to reflect that themedia is located in the memory.

According to an aspect of the invention, the method may further include,if the first survey answer comprises a media identifier, after storingthe media to the memory, instructing the first source to delete themedia having the media identifier from a first source memory.

According to an aspect of the invention, any of the above methods may beencoded, on a non-transitory computer readable medium, as processinginstructions to be implemented by one or more processors.

While not limited thereto, an embodiment of the present invention isdirected to a system of receiving and organizing survey answers,including a computer readable memory, a database implemented on thecomputer readable memory, a transceiver in communication with thecomputer readable memory and further in communication with a network,and a processor in communication with the memory and configured toexecute one or more of the above methods.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forthin part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obviousfrom the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent and more readily appreciated from the following description ofthe embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings ofwhich:

FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting the interactions of various surveyparticipants and survey sources with a receiving software module anddatabase, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting a method of receiving a survey answer,approving it, and aggregating it in a central database, according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart depicting a method of displaying a survey answer,associating it with an account, and processing edits to it, according toan embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the presentinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elementsthroughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain thepresent invention by referring to the figures.

The titles of each section of this description are for convenience only,and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention.

Use of the singular or plural in this description should not beinterpreted to limit the scope of the invention to the singular orplural, except where the number or range is made explicit (e.g., “oneelement” or “a plurality of elements” would be explicit, whereas “anelement” or “elements” would not be). Also, male and/or female pronounsmay be used throughout this description for convenience, and should notbe interpreted as limiting.

1. Glossary

Survey Answer: A collected series of answers to questions in a survey.

Survey Participant: A person provided with a survey, with the intentthat they should provide a survey answer in response.

Approved Survey Answer: A survey answer which is from a known andapproved source and which contains all required information for thesubject matter of the survey answer.

Survey Aggregation: An aggregation of information collected from allreceived and approved survey answers for a given subject matter.

Rating Field: An information field that expresses a point on a scalewhich is or may be converted to a numerical value; for instance, from 0to 10, or from 1 star to 5 stars.

ID: A code phrase or string of symbols, including alphanumeric symbols,assigned to an object or concept for the primary purpose of uniquelyidentifying the object or concept within a given set of objects orconcepts. An ID may be incorporated into an address for the secondarypurpose of locating the object or concept, as represented in digital orphysical form, but may not be the entire address.

2. Submitting and Aggregating Survey Answers

One or more third party survey companies, or survey sources, communicatewith a central database provider in order to aggregate survey answers ofall said survey sources. For any given survey aggregation, the surveysof all the survey sources will be regarding the same subject matter,though that subject matter may vary wildly from survey aggregation tosurvey aggregation. Topics could include opinions on the goods andservices of businesses in the same field (such as restaurants orapartment complexes), political polls (on the popularity of candidates,political parties or movements, or other subjects), or personal orhousehold information (such as demographic data), among many others.Additionally, two separate subject matters could both be on the sametopic (for instance, resident opinions of apartment complexes), yet bedistinct subject matters due to contrasting questions within thesurveys. A subject matter is therefore defined, for the purposes of thisdescription, both by the topic and the questions of the surveys thatfall under the subject matter.

For convenience, the remainder of this section of the description willassume in places that the surveys, and resulting survey aggregation,will be on the subject of apartment complexes and will be sent toresidents or former residents of said complexes. However, thisassumption should not be treated as limiting on the scope of theinvention, and those of skill in the art will be able to extrapolate thedescribed principles to cover a variety of other subject matters. Itshould be noted in particular that the same embodiment could be used tocreate multiple survey aggregations, each from a different subjectmatter, with only minor configuration changes between surveyaggregations.

FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting the interactions of various surveyparticipants and survey sources with a receiving software module anddatabase, according to an embodiment of the invention.

Each of a number of survey sources 101 supplies a survey to a pluralityof survey participants 105—for instance, the residents of variousapartment complexes—and collects survey answers in response. It is notedthat although the number of survey sources 101 and survey participants105 are depicted as three and six, respectively, this is only forreasons of space, and the invention is not limited to any number ofeither survey sources or survey participants. It is also noted that thearrows depicting interactions between survey sources and surveyparticipants do not depict a required number or arrangement ofinteractions, but merely establish that each of the survey participants105 supply information to at least one of the survey sources 101.

Each of the survey sources 101 may have their own methodologies forsupplying and collecting these surveys, for instance by mail or throughan online poll.

For convenience, when referring to only one rather than several surveysources, this description may refer to survey source 101A, although itwill be recognized that the same principles will apply equally to othersurvey sources such as 101B and 101C.

Each of the survey sources 101 transmits the survey answers, eitherindividually or in bulk, to be received and handled by a receivingsoftware module 111, encoded on a memory in a central computer 110 andexecuted using one or more processors. The transmission may be performedthrough any method that may transmit data, including but not limited tothe Internet, a local network, a direct cable, a Bluetooth transmission,a phone line, or a physically-carried data storage unit.

It is also possible, in some embodiments, that at least one surveysource (not depicted) may store, process, and/or convert its surveyanswers using the resources of the central computer 110 on which thereceiving software module 111 is encoded. For instance, the centraldatabase provider and one of the survey sources may be the same party.In such cases, it may be that no transmission from the at least onesurvey source to the receiving software module 111 is necessary.

One or more databases 115 are also located on the memory of the centralcomputer 110, and are accessed by the receiving software module 111. (Itis noted that although the number of databases 115 is depicted as three,this is only for reasons of space, and the invention is not limited toany number of databases.) The receiving software module 111 anddatabases 115 may alternatively be located on memories of differentcomputers but remain in communication with each other; for convenience,however, they are depicted together in FIG. 1. Each database may beassociated with a subject matter and may contain a survey aggregation onthat subject matter.

For convenience, when referring to only one rather than severaldatabases, this description may refer to database 115A, although it willbe recognized that the same principles will apply equally to otherdatabases such as 115B and 115C. The description will further assume,for convenience, that database 115A will be the database on which theaggregation of survey answers on the subject matter of apartmentcomplexes is located, and that any survey answer being considered is onthe same subject matter, though of course survey answers might haveother subject matters, and furthermore, embodiments and configurationswhere no or multiple databases contain information on apartmentcomplexes are possible.

A display software module 113 is also located on the memory of thecentral computer 110, or on an alternative memory, and is incommunication with the databases 115. The display software module 113may be a distinct program, as depicted in FIG. 1, or may be integratedwith the receiving software module 111. Its operation will be detailedin a later portion of this description; for now it is sufficient to notethat it may interact with a computer 120 with access to the Internet, orthrough some other form of client hardware.

Before transmitting the survey answer to the receiving software module111, each survey source 101 may first convert the survey answers to astandardized digital form, either individually or in bulk. Generally,each survey source will be instructed in the requirements of thestandardized digital form in advance. The methods for converting theanswers to the standardized digital form will vary as is convenientgiven the individual methods of collection; for instance, a digitallycollected survey answer may be automatically converted by software,while a survey answer received by mail might first be scanned usingoptical character recognition (OCR), optical mark recognition (OMR), orother methods, or perhaps entered into a computer by hand. A surveyanswer not in the standardized digital form will be rejected by thereceiving software module 111 as invalid, in a process which will bedescribed further below.

In some embodiments, the standardized digital form may be coded in XMLor another structured format.

A survey answer converted to the standardized digital form shouldinclude certain required information fields. These required informationfields may vary depending on the specific subject matter of the survey,and on other configuration settings, but serve in all cases to ensurethat all survey answers in a given survey aggregation provide comparableanswers. In most cases, the survey source 101A will include questions ineach survey such that each survey answer will include data for allrequired information fields before it is converted, but in some casesthe survey source 101A may fill some of the required information fieldsduring the conversion process.

In some embodiments, a required or optional information field maycontain a value on a scale; that is, the information field is a ratingfield. For instance, a rating field may contain a response to a questionsuch as “how strongly do you agree with the following statement?” or“how do you rate the apartment complex in safety?” A rating field'sscale may be defined as, for example, from “0” to “10”, from “F” to “A”,or from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”; other scales may alsobe possible. An average of the values, or numerical equivalents thereof,may be calculated and included as part of a display of the surveyaggregation.

In a subset of the embodiments with rating fields, multiple definedscales may be allowed for the same rating field, each having astandardized equivalent. As but one example, “0” to “10” and “1 star” to“5 stars” could both be permissible scales, where “1 star” could bedefined as equivalent to “0”, “2 stars” as equivalent to “2”, “3 stars”as equivalent to “5”, “4 stars” as equivalent to “8”, and “5 stars” asequivalent to “10”. This approach will allow for calculation of anaverage in the survey aggregation even in cases where two survey sourcesuse different scales for the same rating field. These embodiments mayalso, when displaying individual survey answers (see S301 in FIG. 3,described below), select one scale for a rating field and, for surveyanswers that used another scale, display the standardized equivalent ofthe instead of the original scale, creating consistency between answers.

A survey answer converted to the standardized digital form might alsocontain optional information fields. Whereas a survey answer without allrequired information fields present will be rejected by the receivingsoftware module 111 as invalid, a survey answer without all, or any,optional information fields present will be approved and stored in thedatabase 115A, with these fields left blank or with null values. If anoptional information field is a rating field, the calculated average forthat field in the survey aggregation may ignore those survey answersthat do not include the field.

As but one example, a survey given to residents of apartment complexesmight include the following required information fields: an identifierfor the apartment complex, a move-in date for the resident, arecommendation field (which can be set to Yes, No, or Neutral), andrating fields such as Neighborhood, Grounds, Staff, Maintenance, Safety,Noise, and Overall. An optional information field of a move-out date forthe resident may also be present in this example.

In many embodiments and configurations, a Comment will be among theoptional information fields.

In some embodiments, data from the survey answer which does not fit intoany of the other required information fields may be placed in anoptional Miscellaneous field, or appended to the content of the Commentfield. In other embodiments, the receiving software module will ignoresome or all data from the survey answer that is not within a required oroptional information field. In still other embodiments, data from thesurvey answer that is not within a required or optional informationfield will trigger a rejection.

In some embodiments, each of the survey sources 101 may have a source IDwhich should be assigned for a given survey source 101A no later thanthe first time the survey source 101A transmits a first survey answer,and which should be unique among all survey sources 101. The source IDmay take a numeric, alphabetic, or alphanumeric form, and may alsocontain symbols. In such embodiments, the source ID may have acorresponding required information field. When a survey source 101Aconverts the survey answers to the correct standardized digital form, itwill include its own source ID in each survey answer.

In some embodiments, the receiving software module 111 may be configuredto receive survey answers on multiple subject matters, and create adifferent survey aggregation for each such subject matter. In suchembodiments, each survey subject matter may have its own subject matterID which should be assigned when the survey aggregation for said subjectmatter is configured, and which should be unique among all subjectmatters. In such embodiments, the subject matter ID may have acorresponding required information field. When a survey source 101Aconverts the survey answers to the correct standardized digital form, itwill include the correct subject matter ID in each survey answer. Thereceiving software module 111 will check this subject matter ID onreceipt, and will sort the survey answer into the correct surveyaggregation accordingly. Furthermore, in such embodiments, otherrequired information fields may vary from subject matter to subjectmatter.

In some embodiments, one required information field may be an emailaddress of the party who answered the survey. Possible uses of thisemail address will be described further herein.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting a method of receiving a survey answer,approving it, and aggregating it in a central database with other surveyanswers, according to an embodiment of the invention.

At S201, a survey answer is received by the receiving software module111. The survey answer may have been transmitted in any number of ways;as one example, if a survey source 101A collects the survey answersthrough a website, each survey answer may be converted to the correctstandardized digital form and transmitted in an automatic fashion,using, for instance, an application programming interface embedded onthe website.

The receiving software module 111 checks this survey answer to confirmthat it is in the correct standardized digital form. First, at S211, itis confirmed that the general formatting is correct—i.e. there are noerrors that make it unreadable, such as unclosed XML tags or datacorruption. In embodiments which include a source ID requiredinformation field, the source ID may be checked against a list ofauthorized source IDs at S213 as a security measure. In embodimentswhere multiple databases 115 exist, each storing a different surveyaggregation with different required information fields, the subjectmatter ID of the survey answer may be checked at S215 and, if a knownsubject matter ID, a complete list of required information fields forthat subject matter may be retrieved at S217. The complete list may bestored for retrieval in the database 115A for the subject matter. Thecomplete list of required information fields will then be compared tothe survey answer at S219, confirming that each field is present andcontains a value. In some embodiments, the receiving software module 111may also confirm, at S219, that each value in each information field isvalid for the field—for instance, that a rating field contains a valuewithin a defined scale for that rating field, that an “email”information field contains a valid email address, or that a “date”information field contains a value that could be understood as a date.If any of these checks fail, the survey answer is rejected at S237; thereceiving software module 111 may also return an error message in someembodiments.

If all validity checks S211, S213, S215, and S219 succeed, in someembodiments, the survey answer may be “scrubbed” at S227; that is, itmay be automatically edited for display. Specifically, data that exceedsa desired length for a field may be truncated. Additionally, thescrubbing process may identify profanity or other undesired language andcensor it, by replacing it with asterisks, dashes, or other censorsymbols. Other automatic editing might also occur in some embodiments atthis stage.

In some embodiments, before the survey answer is scrubbed, it is firsttemporarily stored in the memory of the central computer 110, as abackup procedure should an automatic edit prove undesired.Alternatively, the survey answer may be permanently stored into thedatabase 115A as in S235 (described further below) before S227 occurs,and the results of S227 may be treated as an edit to the survey answer(see FIG. 3, described further below).

At this point, the survey answer is approved, and may be stored into thedatabase 115A, at S235. If an embodiment with multiple databases 115,the receiving software module 111 may check the subject matter ID of thesurvey answer to determine which of the databases should store thesurvey answer.

In embodiments where the required information fields include a fieldthat identifies the survey participant in some manner—for instance, aname, a physical address, a phone number, or an email address—thereceiving software module 111 may compare the value for this field,alongside the source ID and/or the subject matter ID if provided, to thevalues for previously provided and stored survey answers in the database115A, at S231. If a match is found in the database 115A at S231, thesurvey answer is stored as an edit for the match at S233, rather than anoriginal and separate survey answer as would be done at S235. Thisprocess will be elaborated on further below.

In some embodiments, survey answers may optionally include media, suchas images, video, or documents. When a survey participant provides mediaas part of the survey answer, this media may be initially placed in astorage memory (not depicted) under the control of a survey source 101A.This storage memory is accessible through the same network or othertransmission method that is used to transmit the survey answer.Additionally, the optional information fields include a field whichprovides an identifier or identifiers of any such media in the mediastorage memory of the survey source 101A. These identifiers may take theform of storage addresses, or of media IDs which are generated andsupplied by the survey source 101A and which are unique among storedmedia on the media storage memory of the survey source 101A.

In such embodiments, at S221, the media identifier field is checked, andif the field is present and not empty, the receiving software module 111locates the media. If the identifier takes the form of a storageaddress, the receiving software module 111 checks the address providedfor the media. If the identifier takes the form of a media ID, thereceiving software module 111 signals the survey source 101A with themedia ID, and the survey source supplies the media. Once the media islocated, it is copied to the memory of the central computer 110 at S223,and the media identifier in the survey answer field is updated toreflect the media's copying to the memory of the central computer 110 atS225; for instance, if the identifier takes the form of a storageaddress, the address is updated to the media's new address in the memoryof the central computer 110, while if the identifier takes the form of amedia ID, a portion of the media ID may be altered in a manner thatindicates the media is located on the memory of the central computer 110rather than on the storage memory of the survey source 101A. In a subsetof such embodiments, the media may be scrubbed along with the rest ofthe survey answer content at S227; for instance, media of excessive sizemay be compressed, or the media may be scanned for copyright-infringingmaterial.

In a subset of such embodiments, at S223, the media storage memory ofthe survey source 101A may also be given authorization to delete thecopy of the media still located on said media storage memory, oralternatively the receiving software module 111 may simply delete saidcopy itself if authorized. Either method will assist in recovering spaceon the media storage memory of the survey source 101A once it isunderstood that the media is safely copied to the memory of the centralcomputer 110.

In some embodiments, when the receiving software module 111 stores thesurvey answer at S235, it generates an answer ID associated with thesurvey answer at S241. This answer ID should be unique at least amongall answer IDs for the survey subject matter (that is, for all surveyanswers to be stored on database 115A), and may be unique among allanswer IDs throughout all databases 115. The answer ID may serve thepurpose of a unique identifier which may locate the survey answer in alldatabases 115, or in the database 115A containing the correct surveyaggregation.

In some embodiments, a passcode associated with the survey answer mayalso be generated at S243. This passcode may in some embodiments beunique at least among all passcodes for the survey subject matter (thatis, for all survey answers to be stored on database 115A), and mayfurther be unique among all passcodes throughout all databases 115;however, in other embodiments neither is a requirement, so long as thereare sufficient permutations of passcodes such that a person could notguess a passcode at random. The purpose for this passcode will beelaborated upon later.

In embodiments where the required information fields include a surveyparticipant's email address, a confirmation message stating that thesurvey answer has been received and processed may at this point betransmitted to the survey participant's email address, at S245.Similarly, in embodiments where the required information fields includea survey participant's phone number, the confirmation message may betransmitted by text message to the survey participant's phone number. Inyet other embodiments, the confirmation message may be transmitted tothe survey source 101A, which will be tasked with forwarding it to thesurvey participant in a manner of its choosing. This confirmationmessage may include the answer ID, or another method of locating thesurvey answer in the survey aggregation such as a URL. The confirmationmessage may also include the passcode if one is generated.

Although not depicted in FIG. 2, in some embodiments a confirmationmessage may also be transmitted after a successful edit to an existingsurvey answer occurs at S233. In such embodiments, the confirmationmessage may include the answer ID of the existing (that is, the edited)survey answer, or another method of locating the survey answer in thesurvey aggregation such as a URL or other address. The confirmationmessage may also note that a survey answer was edited rather thancreated. In a subset of these embodiments, the passcode for the existingsurvey answer may also be included, although this may be deemedundesirable for security reasons.

It is noted that the order of operations depicted in FIG. 2 may bealtered without departing from the scope of the invention. For instance,the order of the validity checks S211, S213, S215/S217, and S219 mightbe rearranged without harming the overall operation of the method. Asanother example, the match comparison S231 might occur before thescrubbing S227, and the media upload processes S221, S223, S225 mightoccur after the scrubbing S227. As yet another example, the answer IDand passcode generation S241 and S243 might occur at any point in theprocess, especially any point after S219, once it is confirmed that thesurvey answer will be stored instead of rejected.

While S241, S243, and S245 may be performed by the receiving softwaremodule 111, in some embodiments they may be performed by software (notdepicted in FIG. 1) under the control of the survey source 101A, andwill occur sometime before or during the conversion of the survey answerto the correct standardized digital form; both the answer ID andpasscode will then be transmitted along with the survey answer andreceived at S201. This approach can provide a more immediate feedback tothe survey participant, as the confirmation S245 may be provided almostimmediately after the survey participant completes the survey, ratherthan at the end of the answer storage process depicted in FIG. 2. Theconfirmation S245 may also be provided via the survey source's softwareon a page, screen, popup, or other direct display mechanism, instead ofvia email or text message, removing the need for the survey participantto provide an email address or phone number, and thus allowing for trueanonymity at every level. However, because an individual survey source101A may otherwise be unable to generate an answer ID that will beunique among all survey sources 101, in such embodiments some portion ofthe answer may be derived from the source ID for the survey source 101A,ensuring that a different survey source will not generate a duplicateanswer ID. As a simple example, the source ID might begin or end theanswer ID. In embodiments where a unique or sufficiently unique passcodeis also required, use of the source ID may be used in the same fashionto generate the passcode.

3. Viewing and Editing Survey Answers

FIG. 3 is a flowchart depicting a method of displaying a survey answer,associating it with an account, and processing edits to it, according toan embodiment of the invention.

The content of a survey answer is accessible from the databases 115through the display software module 113, using a computer 120 withaccess to the Internet, or through some other form of client hardware. Asurvey answer might be located and accessed in the databases 115 throughnumerous methods, which might include searching for one or more knownelements in the survey answer, searching for the answer ID when known,or using a known address such as a URL; other methods might also beconceived of by those of skill in the art.

The display software module 113 receives a request for a survey answerat S301, and displays the survey answer at S303 after locating it in thedatabases 115. The displayed survey answer will include the formattedand scrubbed survey answer content, including access to any submittedmedia. It will also present an option to edit the survey answer, such asa clickable button, which is selected at S305.

As described and depicted earlier, in FIG. 2, in some embodiments, whena survey participant submits a survey answer, an associated passcode isgenerated at S243 and supplied to the survey participant at S245. When auser selects the option to edit the survey answer at S305, the displaysoftware module 113 requests the associated passcode at S321. If apasscode is provided, it is checked against the passcode that isassociated with the survey answer at S323. If the provided passcode andthe associated passcode match, the user is permitted to edit the surveyanswer content at S341. If the provided passcode and the associatedpasscode do not match, the user will be told so at S325. In someembodiments, the user may then be allowed to try providing anotherpasscode, at S321, an indefinite number of times, while in others, theuser will only be allowed to try a certain number of times, such as oneor three, before the survey answer is locked from further attempts for acertain period, such as 30 minutes or one day (lockdown operation notdepicted in FIG. 3).

In some embodiments, user accounts may exist which may be associatedwith survey answers. A user may log in to an account to identify himselfand more easily access material associated with the account, such as thesurvey answers. In such embodiments, when a user tries to edit a surveyanswer at S305, the display software module 113 may check whether anaccount is already associated with the survey answer at S311 and, if so,whether the user is logged into that account at S313. If the user islogged in to an account which is associated with the survey answer—forinstance, if the same account was used when the survey answer wasinitially submitted—the user is immediately permitted to edit the surveyanswer content at S341. If an account is already associated with thesurvey answer, but the user attempting to edit the survey answer is notlogged in to this account, the user will not be asked for a passcode,but will be instructed to log in to the correct account at S315, andwill not be permitted to edit the survey answer while he is not loggedin to that account.

In some embodiments, after the correct passcode is confirmed at S323,the display software module 113 checks whether the user is logged intoan account at S331. If the user is logged in to an account, but theaccount is not yet associated with the survey answer (as determinedeither in this operation or previously at S311), providing the correctpasscode may associate the account with the survey answer at S337. Thismay occur automatically, or the user may be given an option whether toassociate the account with the survey answer.

In some embodiments, if the user is not logged in to an account at all,as determined either at S331 or previously at S311, providing thepasscode may also present the user with an option to create an accountat S333. If the user agrees and creates the account at S335, the accountwill then be associated with the survey answer at S337, optionally orautomatically.

In this manner, a submitter of a previously anonymous survey answer mayhave an account properly associated with the survey answer at any pointafter the survey answer has been submitted.

In some embodiments, the option to associate an account and a surveyanswer may be provided separately from the editing process—for instance,a separate button purely for associating an account with a survey answermay be provided at S303 if the survey answer is unassociated—or bothoptions of “with editing” and “without editing” may be provided. Aseparated association process may resemble the process depicted in FIG.3 from S321 to S337, or some subset thereof, but will not proceed toS341. A separated approach may be more intuitive to users who wish toassociate an account with multiple survey answers promptly aftercreating that account, without desire to edit the survey answers, whilea combined approach may be more streamlined when the user wishes to edita survey answer immediately.

Once the correct passcode is provided at S323 or the user is otherwiseidentified at S313, an edit interface is provided at S341. In someembodiments, this edit interface may be part of the receiving softwaremodule 111, and for the remainder of the description this will beassumed for convenience, although in other embodiments the editinterface might instead be part of the display software module 113, oroperated by some integration of the two modules. Numerous processes andinterfaces for editing digital content are already well known in thefield and will not be detailed here.

Once the desired edited content is submitted at S343, the edited surveyanswer is stored to the database 115A at S345.

In some embodiments, when a survey answer is edited, the prior surveyanswer content (i.e. the survey answer content as it existed before theedit) may not be preserved in the database 115A, but may be replaced bythe edited survey answer content. Alternatively, the prior survey answercontent may be preserved for a short period, such as an hour or a day,to allow for reversions in case of error or malicious behavior, but willbe erased from storage after that period. Both approaches conserve datastorage. In a subset of these embodiments, the survey answer content inthe database 115A will include a notation that the survey answer hasbeen edited, with or without the date of this editing; this notation maybe displayed when the survey answer is displayed.

However, in other embodiments, the prior survey answer content ispreserved for an extended period, such as a month or longer, or evenindefinitely. In a subset of these embodiments, the edited survey answercontent may be “threaded” with the prior survey answer content. That is,when viewing the survey answer at S303, the edited survey answer contentmay be displayed first, but then followed by the prior survey answercontent, which is marked as the state of the survey answer before anedit (or as a “prior version” of the survey answer). The entire priorsurvey answer content may be displayed alongside the edited surveyanswer content, or the display software module 113 may simply provide alink to the prior survey answer content. A timestamp of the edit mayalso be stored with the survey answer and displayed. If a survey answerhas been edited multiple times, each such version of the survey answermay be displayed in this manner, in order from newest to oldest.

In some embodiments, a survey source 101A may be able to request updateswhen a survey answer supplied through that survey source is successfullyedited. In such cases, the survey source 101A may be able to turn on andoff this feature, for some or all survey answers or subject matterssupplied through that survey source. When a survey answer is edited,either the receiving software module 111 or the display software module113 will check whether any survey source 101A has requested updates forthat survey answer, at S347. If so, the survey source 101A is sent anupdate alert at S349, through one or more of several possible automatedmethods, such as email, text, or automated phone call. This update alertmay contain an identifier for the survey answer, such as its ID or alink, or it may contain the edited content, with or without the originalcontent for comparison; both options together are also possible, alongwith other possible information.

Returning to FIG. 2, in some embodiments, it may be possible to edit asurvey answer through the survey source 101A. This is particularlyuseful when a survey source has a practice of following up with the samesurvey recipients for updates to their opinions. For instance, a surveysource may survey residents of an apartment complex regarding thatcomplex annually, or seek people's opinions of a political figure bothbefore and after a political event such as a debate or the passage of alegislative bill.

The survey source 101A may request and collect edits to the surveyanswer however desired; frequently, using the same methodologies used torequest and collect the initial survey answers. The survey source 101Amay also submit the edited survey answers in the same manner and formatas with the original survey answers; however, the edited survey answersshould in many embodiments be labeled as an “edit” (or “duplicate”),using an optional information field designed for this label. In someembodiments, an edited survey answer must also include the answer ID ofthe original survey answer, or the URL or passcode associated with thesurvey answer. In other embodiments, the receiving software module 111,upon receiving a survey answer labeled as an “edit”, will compareidentifying details in the edited survey answer with existing surveyanswers from the same survey source until it finds a probable match, asshown in S231. The receiving software module 111 may seek confirmationthat the correct existing survey answer has been located before storingthe edit at S233.

4. Other Embodiments and Applications

The methods disclosed herein, and other processing instructionsnecessary to implement the system described herein, may all be encodedon a non-transitory computer readable medium, with the instructions tobe executed using one or more processors.

A processor or processors may be configured to execute the methods andother processing instructions described herein. The processor orprocessors may be in communication with a non-transitory computerreadable memory storing the instructions; the memory may also storesoftware or data implementing other features of the database, softwareand/or websites.

In combination with other technologies, the present invention may beused to aggregate survey answers that were not deliberately supplied tothe central database provider. For instance, in combination with a“scraper” system—that is, software that automatically reads andprocesses information from open third-party websites anddatabases—operation S201 may be implemented to have, or supplementedwith software having, the ability to receive survey answers collectedfrom an independent website. Other algorithms might then be required toconvert these answers to the standardized digital form, although asufficiently short list of required information fields will make thisprocess simpler, and increase the likelihood that the survey answers ofany given independent source will be approved.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatchanges may be made in this embodiment without departing from theprinciples and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined inthe claims and their equivalents. In particular, functionally equivalentelements may be substituted for those specifically shown and described,order or placement of elements may be altered in certain cases, certainfeatures may be used independently of other features, and all or some ofthe above embodiments may be selectively combined with each other.

1. A method of receiving and organizing survey answers from a pluralityof survey suppliers using one or more hardware processors, the methodcomprising: receiving a first survey answer from a first surveysupplier, the first survey supplier having received said first surveyanswer from a first survey participant in response to a first set ofsurvey questions supplied by the first survey supplier, the first surveyanswer associated with a survey subject matter; determining, by the oneor more hardware processors, whether the first survey answer is anapproved survey answer; if and only if the first survey answer isdetermined to be an approved survey answer, storing at least part of thefirst survey answer to a survey answer database; receiving a secondsurvey answer from a second survey supplier different from the firstsurvey supplier, the second survey supplier having received said secondsurvey answer from a second survey participant in response to a secondset of survey questions different from the first set of survey questionsand supplied by the second survey supplier, the second survey answerassociated with the same survey subject matter as the first surveyanswer; determining, by the one or more hardware processors, whether thesecond survey answer is an approved survey answer; and if and only ifthe second survey answer is determined to be an approved survey answer,storing at least part of the second survey answer to the survey answerdatabase.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the operations ofdetermining whether each survey answer is an approved survey answer eachcomprise: determining whether the survey supplier of the survey answeris an authorized source, based on a source ID of the survey answer, thesource ID unique to the survey supplier; determining whether the subjectmatter associated with the survey answer is a known subject matter,based on a subject matter ID of the survey answer, the subject matter IDunique to the subject matter; determining whether the survey answercomprises a series of information fields matching a set of requiredinformation fields for the subject matter of the survey answer; and ifand only if all three of the above determinations are positive,determining that the survey answer is an approved survey answer.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the first survey answer comprises anassociated passcode, further comprising: after storing the first surveyanswer, receiving a request to edit the first survey answer; receivingan additional passcode; and if the additional passcode matches theassociated passcode of the first survey answer, granting permission toedit the first survey answer, receiving an edited survey answer, andediting the first survey answer in the survey answer database to reflectat least part of the edited survey answer.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the editing of the content of the first survey answer comprisesinserting the at least part of the edited survey answer and a timestampinto the first survey answer.
 5. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising, if the additional passcode matches the associated passcodeof the first survey answer, associating the first survey answer with auser account.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: afterstoring the first survey answer, generating a passcode; associating thepasscode with the first survey answer; after associating the passcode,receiving a request to edit the first survey answer; receiving anadditional passcode; and if the additional passcode matches theassociated passcode of the first survey answer, granting permission toedit the first survey answer, receiving an edited survey answer, andediting the first survey answer in the survey answer database to reflectat least part of the edited survey answer.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the step of editing content of the first survey answer comprisesinserting the at least part of the edited survey answer and a timestampinto the first survey answer.
 8. The method of claim 6, furthercomprising, if the additional passcode matches the associated passcodeof the first survey answer, associating the first survey answer with auser account.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: from thefirst survey supplier, receiving an additional survey answer; comparingone or more identifying features of the additional survey answer to oneor more identifying features of the first survey answer; and if the oneor more identifying features of the additional survey answer match theone or more identifying features of the first survey answer, editing thefirst survey answer in the survey answer database to reflect at leastpart of the additional survey answer.
 10. The method of claim 9, whereinthe step of editing content of the first survey answer comprisesinserting the at least part of the edited survey answer and a timestampinto the first survey answer.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein: theone or more identifying features of the first survey answer comprise afirst answer ID, and the one or more identifying features of theadditional survey answer comprise an additional answer ID.
 12. Themethod of claim 9, wherein: the one or more identifying features of thefirst survey answer comprise a name, a physical address, a phone number,or an email address, and the one or more identifying features of theadditional survey answer comprise a name, a physical address, a phonenumber, or an email address.
 13. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: from the first survey supplier, receiving an additionalsurvey answer; checking the additional survey answer for a labelindicating that the additional survey answer is a duplicate surveyanswer; and if the additional survey answer is a duplicate surveyanswer: comparing one or more identifying features of the additionalsurvey answer to one or more identifying features of the first surveyanswer, and if the one or more identifying features of the additionalsurvey answer match the one or more identifying features of the firstsurvey answer, editing the first survey answer in the survey answerdatabase to reflect at least part of the additional survey answer. 14.The method of claim 1, further comprising, if the first survey answercomprises a media location address: retrieving media from the medialocation represented by the media location address, storing the media toa memory, and amending the media location address to represent the newlocation of the media in the memory.
 15. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising, if the first survey answer comprises a media locationaddress, after storing the media to the memory, instructing the firstsurvey supplier to delete the media from the media location representedby the media location address.
 16. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising, if the first survey answer comprises a media identifier:requesting a media having the media identifier from the first surveysupplier, receiving the media having the media identifier from the firstsurvey supplier, storing the media to a memory, and amending the mediaidentifier to reflect that the media is located in the memory.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, further comprising, if the first survey answercomprises a media identifier, after storing the media to the memory,instructing the first survey supplier to delete the media having themedia identifier from a first survey supplier memory.
 18. A system ofreceiving and organizing survey answers, the system comprising: acomputer readable memory; one or more databases implemented on thecomputer readable memory; a transceiver in communication with the memoryand further in communication with a network; and one or more processorsin communication with the memory and configured to execute the method ofclaim
 1. 19. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded withprocessing instructions for implementing the method of claim 1 using oneor more processors.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein the survey answerdatabase is a first subject matter database, further comprising:receiving a third survey answer from the first survey supplier, thefirst survey supplier having received said third survey answer from athird survey participant, the third survey answer associated with asecond subject matter different from the subject matter of the firstsurvey answer; determining, by the one or more hardware processors,whether the third survey answer is an approved survey answer; and if andonly if the third survey answer is determined to be an approved surveyanswer, storing at least part of the third survey answer to a secondsubject matter database different from the first subject matterdatabase.